President Moon: "The sharp drop in self-employed sales and the burden of rent are painful... Is it truly fair?"

Opening Remarks at the Blue House Senior Secretary and Secretary Meeting

President Moon Jae-in is presiding over the senior secretaries and aides meeting at the Blue House on the 14th. 2020.12.14 [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Son Sun-hee] On the 14th, President Moon Jae-in said, "When business operations are restricted or prohibited according to government quarantine guidelines, the question of whether it is truly fair for small and medium-sized business owners and self-employed individuals to bear the full burden of plummeting sales along with rent costs is very painful to hear," adding, "We must gather various solutions and wisdom on ways for society as a whole to share the weight of suffering, not just forcing sacrifices on the vulnerable, and to enhance the government's responsibility and role."

President Moon presided over a senior secretaries and aides meeting at the Blue House that afternoon and stated in his opening remarks, "Support for small and medium-sized business owners and self-employed individuals, who are suffering the most from the recent worsening of the COVID-19 situation and strengthened quarantine measures, is especially urgent." He continued, "In addition to existing support measures, I hope the execution plan for the 3 trillion won third disaster relief fund budget passed by the National Assembly will be prepared quickly so that it can be promptly implemented in a damage-tailored manner, and that the speed of execution will be increased. I also ask that efforts to expand policy fund support to spread the Good Landlord Movement and to ease business burdens caused by COVID-19 through expanded tax and financial support be further strengthened."

As the COVID-19 situation worsens and the government has left open the possibility of raising social distancing to level 3, the ruling party has proposed the so-called "Rent Freeze Act" (partial amendment to the Commercial Building Lease Protection Act, led by Lee Dong-joo of the Democratic Party of Korea). This legislation stipulates that small business owners and self-employed individuals do not have to pay building rent if they cannot operate their businesses due to government quarantine policies.

President Moon also said, "The government plans to directly provide more than 1 million emergency jobs to support vulnerable groups who have difficulty finding employment," adding, "Please ensure thorough preparation so that this can be implemented early with the start of the new year." This was a point President Moon had also mentioned in his budget speech in October, interpreted as urging an acceleration in policy execution speed.

Meanwhile, President Moon remarked, "Despite the difficult situation where domestic demand and consumption are rapidly shrinking due to the spread of COVID-19 and strengthened quarantine measures, it is fortunate that Korea's macroeconomy is showing a good trend," referring to the recently favorable export indicators. He added, "Both the KOSPI and KOSDAQ have reached all-time highs, and hopeful forecasts about the opening of the '3000-point era' in stock prices are emerging," urging, "We must further strengthen measures to boost economic vitality such as exports and investment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.